Andre Russell shone with both bat and ball as Kolkata Knight Riders beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 54 runs at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune on Saturday.
After winning the toss and electing to bat first, Kolkata lost Venkatesh Iyer (7) early as he dragged at a Marco Jansen delivery onto his stumps.
The pair of Ajinkya Rahane and Nitish Rana featured in a 48 run stand for the second wicket before the latter guided a back of a length delivery from Umran Malik to Shashank Singh at deep square leg for 26.
Rahane (28) also departed in the same over while attempting an upper cut. Malik also sent back skipper Shreyas Iyer (15), who flicked a full delivery to Rahul Tripathi at deep midwicket.
Natarajan then trapped Rinku Singh (5) with a magnificent inswinging yorker as the Knight Riders lost half their side for 94.
Sam Billings along with Andre Russell brought the innings back on track with a valuable 63 run stand for the sixth wicket before the former chipped a Bhuvneshwar Kumar delivery to Kane Williamson at extra cover for a 29 ball-34.
The West Indies all rounder smashed Washington Sundar for 20 runs in the final over to lift the Knight Riders to 177/6 in their allotted 20 overs.
For Sunrisers, Umran Malik was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 3/33.
Chasing 178, openers Abhishek Sharma and Kane Williamson got Sunrisers of to a steady start. The pair added 30 runs for the opening stand before the latter (9) was cleaned up by Andre Russell while attempting a scoop shot.
The in form Rahul Tripathi (9) then fell to an excellent return catch by Tim Southee off his own bowling.
Abhishek looked good in his knock of 43, before he miscued a slop sweep off Varun Chakravarthy to Sam Billings who took an excellent catch.
Nicholas Pooran (2) slapped a short ball straight back to Sunil Narine, as SRH slumped to 76/4.
Umesh Yadav dented Sunrisers hopes by dismissing the well set Aiden Markram, bowled for 32.
Russell then claimed wickets of Washington Sundar (4) and Marco Jansen (1) in the 18th over, as Hyderabad finished at 123/8 in 20 overs.
Kolkata Knight Riders 177 for 6 (Russell 49*, Billings 34, Malik 3-33) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 123 for 8 (Abhishek 43, Markram 32, Russell 3-22, Southee 2-23) by 54 runs